Calamity || The Mandalorian

fifty-four

Suddenly, the low clanging of metal sung from her left, causing Kas to shift, her blaster raised instinctively to shoot whatever new threat loomed. Then, she stopped in her tracks to stare with wide-eyes as Din yanked the E-Web from its stand before turning towards the troopers shooting at the IG unit and child.

"Holy fuck," she murmured as he began to fire a barrage of bright red bolts from the cannon, mowing down the enemy troopers with the E-Web at his hip, "That's fucking hot." From where he stood a few paces away, Din smiled to himself underneath his Beskar, blushing slightly.

Suddenly a large blast range out followed by a plum of fire, and Kasia turned to see a band of Stormtroopers accompanied by a Deathtrooper make their way into the cantina where Cara had remained.

"Shit," she growled under her breath, finishing off two more troopers with deadly efficiently before running towards the doorway, shooting one of the Stormtroopers standing over Cara and providing her friend cover to finish off the remaining enemies with her massive blaster.

Winking, Kas made to help her friend up, when suddenly a familiar bark of pain rose over the chaos of the battlefield. The world seemed to freeze as she turned to see Din stumble a step forward, Moff Gideon standing a short way away, his blaster hefted. And as she watched Din turn to face Gideon, as she watched the Mandalorian lift the E-Web at Gideon, she realized too late what Gideon was thinking, the slipperiness of the man himself and the unfamiliarity of the passageways of his mind making it too difficult for her to recognize his true intent until too late.

And so, Kasia found that as she raised both her blasters to shoot at the cloaked asshole, as she screamed at Din to get the fuck away from the box of explosives at your feet, that she was the one who was too late to do anything.

The world exploded in fire and ash, and Kasia could only watch as Din was thrown away from the explosion, hitting the ground with a deafening thud, the calamity Kasia had so dreaded seeming to unfold before her very eyes. Kasia thought that she might be screaming, but then again perhaps that was just the ringing in her ears as she stared down at Din's unmoving form.

He was alive, she knew that, could feel that with certainty, but his consciousness was waning, his thoughts a scattered mixture of pain and panic, dream and regret.

The battle seemed to blend into the background as Kas rushed to Din's side, swearing filthy under her breath as she grabbed him under his arms, trying to drag him away to safety.

"Why the fuck are you so damn heavy?" she huffed, grunting as she dragged him a foot towards the door, her arms feeling as though they were about to fall from their sockets. "I fucking told you to stay the hell away from my Cornellian Ryschate you asshole, but do you listen?" She blinked the tears away from her eyes as she sensed only a flicker of humor from the listless Mandalorian in her arms, the emotion the only indication that he had heard her remark.

A moment later, Kasia sensed Cara at her side, the woman stepping in to help her pull Mando towards the cantina as Greef and the IG unit continued to send volley after volley of bullets towards the Stormtroopers on the other side of the battlefield, their cover the only protection for Kas and Cara's admittedly exposed states.

Finally, the world fell momentarily silent as the blast door slammed shut behind IG-11, separating their group from their ex-Imperial enemies outside the cantina. Still, Kasia found that she didn't care much about the remaining Imps as she and Cara set Din on the floor with a groan.

"Stay with me buddy," Cara managed to say through gritted teeth as she and Kasia rested him against a piece of fallen debris. "We're gonna get you out of here."